Autodesk Discussion Groups Feedback

[#1]

Eric, you replaced one obscure (and awful) forum software solution (Jive) with another equally obscure (and even more awful) forum software solution (Lithium). If you're abandoning NNTP and going web-only, then there are much better systems out there in very common use that could have been chosen instead.

Why choose Lithium?

[#2]

That's a fine question, Steve.  I gotta wonder if that is what Microsoft

decided to use (I have not checked it for myself)

[#3]

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Jason.Piercey wrote:

That's a fine question, Steve.

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But one that is destined to remain forever unanswered, it seems.

[#4]

Never Say Die!

Wonder how many other old threads are out there questioning the "new" Forum that were passed over?

[#5]

Which one's do you like Steve?

[#6]

Which one's what?

[#7]

"If you're abandoning NNTP and going web-only, then there are much better systems out there in very common use that could have been chosen instead."

[#8]

Ah, now I understand the question, thanks for clarifying.

I don't have a problem with various forums based on vBulletin, phpBB or SMF. The only forums I've come across that have immediately struck me as terrible have been based on Jive, Lithium or custom code (that's not to say all custom forums are terrible, only some of them). I forget what the AUGI forums temporarily changed to during the 2010 dispute over ownership of the forum content, but I seem to remember that was pretty bad, too. There are some forums run by Autodesk in a place I can't mention, which are based on Centercode. I'm not a great fan of those, either.

The best forum software I've seen for the purpose of a place like this, in terms of performance, usability (not perfect, but acceptable) and efficiency of screen space usage was the one that was in place here immediately prior to the Jive disaster.

Back when I wrote the OP, I had a look around at what software high-traffic forum sites were using and discovered the following, which is of course now 2 years out of date:

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Of the most popular 2247 forums on the web, only 4 use Lithium:

Rank  Site

390  Gamespot
859  Playstation.com
1355  Zelda forums
2199  Nintendo forums

Interestingly, there are also only 4 that use Jive:

Rank  Site

748  Sun Java Forums
1135  MuroBBS
1166  Parents.com
2187  CNET

So both Lithium and Jive are used on less than 0.2% of the Internet's most popular forums. Having used both, I can understand that. So what forum software is more commonly used?

vBulletin: used by 1387 top sites (61.7% - top ranked is no 8)
phpBB: 239 (10.6% - top is 1)
custom: 104 (4.6% - top is 2)

SMF: 41 (1.8% - top is 295)

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[#9]

Knowing nothing about this, I found this to be a well researched response, and kept to a very positive tone for the most part.  Well played Steve.

[#10]

Agreed! Definitely interesting statistics, so thank you for sharing. I'm a math and logic person, so you know I love this stuff. 

I'm going to work on visiting a ton of other forums this week and getting an idea of what works and what doesn't. I have a good idea of a few that are also hosted on Lithium (and don't look anything like ours), but I want to see what the other big tech companies are hosted on. Feel free to PM, e-mail, or post the names of forums you think I should look at, but be sure to tell me if you think they're good or bad, and what features catch your attention. I'll try to share some of my favorites as I come across good stuff.

Thank you!!!